If you have information on your organization, business, blog, etc. please send it to us so that we can add it to our resource list. Give us a little information so that people will know what you are all about.

Archive for the ‘Spay & Neuter’ Category

Do you care about animals? Would you like to find a new job, or need a job? Listening to the news I would think the economy is coming back, but not when I talk with a lot of people around the country. Making a living still seems to be a challenge for most. Many people are very unhappy doing the work they are doing everyday. They have passions and desires that are not being fulfilled. Others are out of work and say they want to find “anything” because they need the income.

This is the perfect time to evaluate what is really important to you, what your passions are AND help animals at the same time.

If you are out of work, or would like to do something else, this is the best time to open the doors for the kind of work YOU want to do. Do you know what you’re really passionate about? Most people have no idea. Don’t think in terms of income but what kinds of things get you really excited and leave you happy and fulfilled when you are finished. It could be ANYTHING:

1. Walking in the woods

2. Doing crossword puzzles

3. Meeting new people

4. Caring for animals

5. Gardening

6. Talking on the phone

7. Reading

8. Traveling…..the list goes on and on

Recently I’ve had a number of friends ask me to help them figure out what they should do, they are not happy doing what they are doing, or they got laid off and fear they won’t find a job in their industry.

If you know what you’re passionate about, you can use that passion to help animals and open doors for your next career. Yes, CAREER, not job. The animal organizations, and charities, around the country need help now, more than ever before. Funding has dried up so they can’t hire the people they need. They also can’t afford to buy the food and supplies needed to care for the animals. Everyday I get requests from these organizations for volunteers and donations.

Right now you are asking yourself, “How can helping an organization help me”? It can, in MANY ways. You meet new people who might open the door to your next position. You also get to do the things you are passionate about. It’s a great way to find out if it’s something you want to do for a living. If so, you can put the experience on your resume. Most people have only worked in the field they have been trained in, but that is not what they love doing.

Here are some ideas for you to think about:

1. Walking and caring for animals at a shelter (if you like being outside)

2. Help the staff with ideas about how to raise money and supplies (doing crossword puzzles)

3. Feeding baby animals or holding ones that are afraid (caring for animals)

4. Cleaning up and landscaping the facility (gardening)

5. Making calls for supplies, donations, volunteers, etc. (talking on the phone)

6. Research and help find new ideas that can benefit the organization (reading)

7. Animals and supplies need to be transported to other locations (traveling)

These are only a few ideas. I could go on for quite sometime. There are also a lot of animals that need to be fostered until a permanent home can be found. They can be cats, dogs, ferrets, iguanas, pigs, etc.

What kinds of animals do you like?

1. Tigers

2. Dogs

3. Cats

4. Birds

5. Horses

6. Monkeys

7. Deer

8. Pigs

There are organizations caring for any kind of animal you can think of, all over the country. All of them need help. You can Google the kind of animal you want to help with “rescue” or “shelter”, then your area. (Ex: ferret shelter Florida) You will most likely find something in your area. If not, call or email the ones that pop up. The animal community is very small and we all help each other the best we can.

I hope that this post will inspire people to find their true passion, and use their passion in a way that will fulfill them personally and help animals that have a lot of needs. At the very least, you will open doors by meeting other people who might know a company that needs a position filled with someone who has your qualifications.

Fall is approaching and that means lots of fun things to do. I am working on an event that will take place in New Orleans. It will benefit the wildlife, pets and other animals that have been affected by the oil disaster in the Gulf. Once I get more specifics finalized, I will be sending out information. Stay tuned…….

If you, or someone you know, has an event coming up, please send me the information. I will place it on this post, so please come back to see new announcements, anywhere in the world.

Here is information on an event that will take place on Saturday September 18th.It is an adoptathon put on by the Humane Society of Sarasota County.If you are on the West Coast of Florida, this is an event you might want to check out. Click here for a website.

If you like golf and animals, this is the event for you. Saturday, September 25th in Sarasota, FL. It’s the Ron Gordon golf tournament. It’s always a fun event, which also happens to be in Sarasota, Florida.You can contact Ron at: nuts4golf@verizon.net

If you are in the Fairdealing Missouri area on Saturday Sept. 4th you might want to stop by and say hi to these guys. They are having an adopt-a-thon. This shelter is always saving animals, even ones that are dumped on the road and no longer wanted. Any help you can give them is greatly appreciated. Click here to learn more about them.

Saturday, Oct. 2nd in Cookeville, TN. there will be the 7th annual, walk-in-the-park. It will be a lot of fun for everyone involved, including the animals. Click here to learn more.

Saturday, October 2nd at the Loose Screw Bar & Grill, 45 Church Street , German Valley, IL . 7pm to 1 am. Join the fun at this Benefit party for Critter Camp Director Beth’s 50th Birthday to raise funds. Click here for more info.

The Humane Society of Southeast Missouri is hosting their annual Bark in the Park on Saturday, Sept. 25 at Kiwanis Park in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. This event helps raise money for the shelter. Click here for more info.

This is a very inspiring video that my mom sent me. I wanted to add it since it is uplifting and shows how connected humans are with animals. Please enjoy!

Unfortunately, there are tragedies as well. Below is an email I got today. We have had a number of really bad storms in my area. These are stories about Greyhounds. PLEASE KEEP YOUR ANIMALS SAFE!!!!

A greyhound got out because the storms had weakened the fence. Please check out your fenced areas if you plan to leave them out unsupervised. This female grey pushed open the weakened area and was missing for what seemed an eternity for the frantic parents looking for her. She was found in the river, but safe.

Other stories…… not so good an ending:

1) 2 greys get out of a gate left open – one is hit on a busy highway almost immediately – $ 2,000 later pinned and recovering. The other was found after 5 days of intense searching and she had been hit twice and required over $ 5,000 of treatments and huge help from the kennel owner

2) weaken fence with another 2 greyhounds getting out both get into a pond and 1 is bitten by a gator, but miraculously survives. Has had 2 very expensive procedures and now has a permanent pin. Let’s make these learning moments to help us all protect our seemingly invincible greyhounds.

Hurricane Preparedness Tips for your Pet

Now that we are into the heart of hurricane season, we would like to remind everyone to make sure and include your pets in your hurricane evacuation plan. If you need to evacuate and cannot take your pets, make arrangements for them ahead of time at a local shelter or boarding facility. Never leave pets at home alone.

Be Sure to:

Prepare adequate supplies of food, medications, and water for your pet. Also, be sure to have medical records, leashes, collars, food bowls, bedding, toys, trash bags for waste, and a crate/carrier ready. Because sometimes our pets can get separated from us micro chipping is also a great idea. Many shelters are overwhelmed with found pets with no ID and a micro chip would get them back to you safely and quickly.

Our world is ever changing. Remember when there were only three networks on TV? Now there are so many choices that people are overwhelmed. You add reality TV networks to the mix and it’s impossible to keep up. A lot of people record, or “Tivo” shows so they can see them “when they have time”. When does that happen? We have become so overwhelmed with keeping up with work and family life that most people don’t have time for TV. When they do watch it I wonder, how many people really take in what they are watching? Are their minds still on something else?

Now, add the internet to the mix. Most people are on their computers for work and play. It’s no wonder TV shows try to direct you to their website. That’s where most people spend their time. It is the place to find love, food, cars, investments, TV shows you missed, coupons and specials, old friends, as well as anything you need regarding animals. That is why I am placing my show on the internet, so I know you will see it!

I wanted to share with you some sites I think you might want to put into your database. You never know when you might need them. You’re already on the computer reading this 🙂 I have posted them below.

There is also a term a lot of people have heard but really don’t understand. It is called“Fostering”. I recently did a report on Greyhounds. The dogs are rescued, sent to prison and trained by the prisoners. After they are trained they are sent to foster homes, or rescues, until they are adopted.

I always thought that fostering meant you HAD to keep the animal until a new home was found. That is not the case. Most of the time animals are only with you for a short time, maybe a week or two. If you have to leave for a trip, the organization will take the animal. If you only want a “friend” for a few weeks or a month, that is fine. There is a HUGE NEED for foster homes everywhere. There are all kinds of animals that need a foster home. It can be fun to learn about a new animal without the long term commitment. The animals come with food. Any medical care is also taken care of for you. All the animal needs is a safe and loving place to stay, temporarily. In addition, think of the love you will get in return.

The other nice thing about fostering is that you just opened up a spot for another animal. If it had not been for you, that animal might have been put down because there was no place for it to go.

If you would like to find out more regarding fostering, I suggest you contact your local shelter, rescue or other animal organization. Ask, “what does takes to be a foster parent”?

If you are looking for animals to adopt:

1.www.petango.com – These are all PetPoint Shelters. They also have a web based store and will make a donation to a selected shelter as a result of the person’s purchase.

2. www.adoptapet.com – People can do a “search saver” which will send them an email when a specific breed they are looking for becomes available.

I am sure there are many more organizations that can be added to this list. If you would like to post about one you know of, please submit it under our “Resources/ Organizations” page. Thanks for all you do for animals around the world!

What is your first impression when you hear a rescued dog was sent to prison? Do you conjure up images that are not pleasant? READ THE INFORMATION AND GO BEHIND THE SCENES, WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW. I think you will be pleasantly surprised and your heart will pound, in a good way.

There is an organization called 2nd Chance at Life. They place Greyhounds in prisons once they have been rescued. They have placed over 600 dogs nationwide. These dogs are fostered by the prisoners.

Keira

What Does The Greyhound and Inmate Prison Partnership Do?

Greyhounds

1. Delivers an Obedience Trained Greyhound to the Community

2. Provides a Network of Prison Foster Homes for Greyhounds

3. Gives them a place to live until they can be adopted

4. Allows two 24/7 inmate caretaker’s for each greyhound

5. Saves thousands of retired racing greyhounds

Huney

Prisoners

1. Allows inmates to give something back to the community

2. Allows inmates to experience un-conditional love

3. Relieves inmate idleness in prison facilities

4. Teaches inmates patience and responsibility

5. Establishes vocational jobs for the inmates

ALL OF THE DOGS ON THIS POST ARE UP FOR ADOPTION!

Chief

Who is a typical adoptable Greyhound?

They’re really a 45 mile an hour couch potato!!!!!!

Usually between eighteen months and five years old.

They do not require a great deal of space to run, as many people think, but they do enjoy their daily walks.

These ex-racers are intelligent, quiet, clean, good-natured, adaptable, sensitive, dogs who adjust readily to their new home environment.

Find the best prescreened, match as possible for your family, with current shots, cleaned teeth. Prescreening includes cat testing that would help ensure compatibility with cats and other small animals.

Find loving and qualified homes for the Greyhounds entrusted to our care. We spay/neuter provide vaccinations and make sure all Greys are in excellent health, including teeth.

Provide ongoing support to those who adopt Greyhounds from Gold Coast Greyhound Adoptions, Inc. or any other group.

Educate the public and raise awareness about the availability and suitability of retired racing Greyhounds as pets.

Promote harmony and teamwork among all segments of the worldwide Greyhound community.

Shaye

How can someone adopt a prison trained or even a non-prison trained rescued Grey?

There are a number of organizations where you can adopt these wonderful dogs. One that I know about, in my area, is Gold Coast Greyhound.

4. Great option for snow birds or anyone without a long term commitment.

Tupelo

Everyone asks, “Is it difficult to give up a foster?” Yes and No. It’s very easy to develop an emotional attachment but when you place a happy Grey in his forever home with wonderful & caring families we are very happy! Then we know we can foster another Grey and help them find a loving home. If you cannot foster and cannot adopt, donations help support the cost of caring for our Greyhounds and preparing them for our prison training program.

Sophia

OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION….

ALL OF THE DOGS ON THIS POST ARE UP FOR ADOPTION.

Racing Greyhounds spend most of their lives in the company of other dogs, their trainers and handlers. Racing Greyhounds have all the advantage of breeding and training when it comes to being a good pet. Their social ability generally makes them great with other pets. Their temperament makes them wonderful around children and friends. Their intelligence and breed make them perfect house pets. A clean, quiet loving companion, a well-mannered Greyhound could be just the pet for you.

I want Friday’s to bring awareness to other organizations that are doing wonderful things for animals. If you have information you want to share, send me a paragraph on the topic with a link to the website, by 11am on Thursday. I will do this each Friday. Please pass this link on to bring awareness to these wonderful organizations, thanks!

Enjoy the 6 posts below:

1. A Love Story: A) Here, his wife is injured and the condition is fatal. She was hit by a car as she swooped low across the road.

B) Here he brought her food and attended to her with love and compassion.

C) He brought her food again but was shocked to find her dead. He tried to move her….a rarely-seen effort for swallows!

D) Aware that his sweetheart is dead and will never come back to him again,he cries with adoring love.

E) He stands beside her, saddened by her death.

F) Finally aware that she would never return to him, he stays beside her body with sadness and sorrow.

Millions of people cried after seeing this picture story inAmerica and Europe and even in India . It is said that thephotographer sold these pictures for a nominal fee to themost famous newspaper in France . All copies of that newspaper were sold out on the day these pictures were published.And many people think birds and animals don’t have a brain or feelings!!

2. On December 15th, 2009 the SPCA of Texas took custody of 26,000 exotic animals from US Global Exotics in the largest animal seizure in US history. USGE was a major distributor of exotic animals from wallabies to hamsters; warehousing them in horrific conditions until they could be brokered to stores, breeders and retailers. Thousands of reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, arachnids, and many other animals were cruelly confined in filthy conditions, literally crammed into cattle-feeding troughs, boxes, bags, and even pop bottles. They did not have food, water, or veterinary care. According to reports 500 animals a day were dying at USGE, ending up tossed in their dumpster.

Thanks to an undercover PETA investigation the animals were permanently awarded to the SPCA of Texas on Feb 1, 2010. Love or hate PETA you have to give them credit for this one. Critter Camp Exotic Pet Sanctuary was proud and honored to be selected as one of 30 rescues in the nation to receive some of the rescued animals from the US Global Exotics animal cruelty and neglect
case. Located in Northern Illinois Critter Camp board member Shary Stelter made the trip to Nashville, TN to meet up with the SPCA of TX transport on Superbowl Sunday where she was interviewed by Nashville Television station WSMV. See the 75 critters from USGE now calling Critter Camp Exotic Pet Sanctuary their home, including adorable Texas Spotted Ground Squirrels, short-tailed opossum , Roborovski hamsters and little white mice; and find links to more information on our Global Exotics Rescue Page:Click Here For More Information.

Critter Camp is the only exotic pet sanctuary of its kind in the U.S. giving a safe, healthy happy home to the elderly, sick, disabled and aggressive un-adoptable exotic pets that have nowhere else to go, currently caring for over 300 animals of 36 different species! Click Here to go to Their Website

3. Pepsi is funding grants in various categories until 2/28. Many Houston dogs are euthanized due to heartworms in a good economy, it is at a horrendous pace currently.

The drug to treat this is very expensive and each bottle only treats 22 lbs. This group is desperate to move up into the funded top ten. More information and pictures of saved dogs are on the site. This could help dogs at many rescue groups and shelter. People can vote every day, until the 28th. PLEASE, CLICK HERE to go to this site to vote today, and everyday until the 28th.

4. TAKE ACTION TODAY!!! 36,000 elephants were killed last year for their ivory. In 16 DAYS 111 tonnes of ivory will be traded at the CITIES* conference if certain countries have their way.

This will pretty much kick-start the ivory trade in a massive way meaning the end for tens or even hundreds of thousands of elephants.

5. A documentary was just completed. It’s about No Kill Pet Rescues and Shelters as well as the challenges they face. In November of 2008 a family adopted a new family member from the Animal Welfare Society and learned about the lack of awareness of the No Kill shelters. They took it upon themselves to finance and create a program about these shelters. They have pledged 60% of all profits to go to the AWS and if they can get great distribution, will split some for other local shelters in the Detroit area.

6. Dachshund Rescue of BucksCounty & NJ have on-line workshops. They are hosted by dachshund experts and are designed to help you have a long and happy relationship with your doxie of any size. There is a small donation fee charged for attendance with all proceeds donated to DRBC for the high medical fees incurred in the rescue and rehabilitation of our beloved breed.

This Month’s First Topic: Dental Disease and Your Dog
Those amazing toofers. How to keep them clean, bright and where they belong. Are doxies more prone to dental disease? How often should I clean my dogs teeth. How often should my vet clean my dogs teeth? Dental and cardiac disease,yes, they are related. Did you know there is anew vaccine to eliminate 4 out of 5 of the causes of tartar? You can find out all about it at this session.

An update on my post last week….. The West Hollywood City Council passed an ordinance on February 16, 2010 banning the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores unless from rescues and shelters. I was overwhelmed by the number of people wanting to know, how can they do the same thing in their own town?

If your state has the puppy lemon law then move forward by going to your pet stores and asking for information about the breeder they buy from. If not, ask your legislators to get the Lemon Law. This law allows you to get the information about the breeder from the pet store. Once you have that information, go to CAPS website and fill out a puppy complaint. Please read all of the information below if you have interest, or know someone who does. It was very time consuming and costly for CAPS to do this, but it has been worth it.

1. Pets, Lies & Legislation

Puppy mills are a hot political issue. Public outrage is growing over the legal multi-billion dollar puppy-producing business that forces millions of breeding dogs to endure inhumane treatment in factory-like conditions until death. They’re kept 24/7 in wire cages caked with their own feces, with no veterinary care or socialization. Average dog lovers want puppy mills to become illegal.

Consequently, a war about dogs is escalating in America – a battle as complex as any fought in the history of social movements and waged with a proportionate scale of strategists, lobbyists, and commanders vying for control, power, and money.

To puppy mill investigators, the idea that commercial breeders are treating their dogs well or socializing them is laughable. A miller’s idea of playtime is to throw a bunch of females in heat with a male in one cage. As for being responsibly placed, mass volume breeders use brokers to ship barely weaned (and often sick) pups indiscriminately to pet retailers around the country. The dogs are crated in trucks for thousands of miles at an age when they need food and water every two hours. They are also sent in crates to buyers across the country on long flights with layovers. Transporting eight-week old dogs that way isn’t safe, and according to Lewis Turner, owner of the Petcare Company in California, four out of ten dogs that were trucked in to him by brokers Lambriar and Hunte were sick, “with green liquid coming from their eyes or nose.” Hardly “responsible placement” by any standard.

It’s Tuesday, 9 AM at a Los Angeles shelter and a worried little terrier has just been “red-listed.” Unless someone adopts her, she’ll be killed. Another dog will take her place and that dog, too, if he isn’t adopted, will be killed. Could spay and neuter laws make a difference in this dog’s life?

In California, in 2008, municipal shelters reporting to the California Department of Public Health took in 833,304 dogs and cats. Of those, 429,987, or 51%, were killed. That would be a sad enough number for the whole country but it’s just for the state of California. In the U.S., the number of pets killed in shelters is astounding. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) reports that every year, between six and eight million dogs and cats enter U.S. shelters and three to four million of those animals are killed because there aren’t enough homes for them. In 2009, uncontrolled breeding compounded by record job losses and home foreclosures are causing the number of animals flooding our shelters to rise sharply. When the figures are finally reported, they’ll be tragic.

Until we get a handle on this crisis, we need to refrain from buying animals and adopt from shelters instead. We ought to promote adoption to our friends. And we must fix the dogs we have. To Read More About This Click Here.

Though there has been lots of press coverage on the subject, there are still people who don’t know that pet stores are supplied by large brokers and inhumane breeding operations. There is no other way for pet shops to have a constant supply of puppies of different breeds. It was time to take a stand and convince puppy buyers to stop shopping and start adopting. Los Angeles, the second largest market for pets after New York, was the perfect place to tell the public about the ugly truth behind the pretty store fronts.

In California, they have a Puppy Lemon Law, which requires pet store owners to post the name and address of the breeder of the dogs on their display enclosures. Putting that law to use, people were recruited who were willing to do some reconnaissance trips to pet stores. They wired themselves up with undercover cameras and disguised themselves.They fanned out across the city, hitting all the pet stores to find out exactly where the puppies were coming from.

They called on some professional investigators from LCA (Last Chance for Animals) to go and film the addresses they provided. When the photos and video came in, the proof was irrefutable. Bingo. Just like they expected, the puppies at Posh Puppy were coming from a puppy mill.

What they found out through their in-store investigations is that pet stores are openly defrauding the public – not just Posh Puppy in Beverly Hills, but all the pet stores they visited. They discovered that pet store owners, managers and employees routinely lie to people. To Read More About This Subject Click Here.

4. A March for Free Speech for Those Who Have No Speech – PUPPY MILL DOGS

On December 19, 2009, the Saturday before Christmas, eighty animal welfare activists marched in a silent vigil for dogs suffering in puppy mills. The grass roots group was also marching for the five million companion animals who are killed every year in the shelter system because there are not enough homes for them. Local activists had been planning the event for months following an investigation by the Companion Animal Protection Society (CAPS), which claims that Barkworks, a pet store chain in California, sells animals from puppy mills. The CAPS investigation included evidence from the United States Department of Agriculture inspection reports that the Midwest commercial breeders supplying the stores had multiple violations.

The puppy mill awareness drive that took place on the busiest puppy-buying day of the year, was intended to raise the awareness of consumers and to steer them to the overcrowded Los Angeles shelters to adopt or rescue a pet for Christmas. Read More Here.

5. Victory for Dogs as Pet Stores Go Humane

Sadly, millions of dogs are suffering in shelters and puppy mills. This year, a record number of dogs are being dumped and euthanized at shelters because of the current economic crisis. Commercial breeders and pet stores are also feeling the pinch. “People just aren’’t buying puppies right now,” says pet store manager Justin Vanert.

Growing numbers of commercial dog breeders in the Midwest are selling their homes for a pittance – advertising them as “turnkey investments,” which often include kennels with hundreds of breeding dogs “free with the property.” As bleak as it all sounds, this recession just might have a silver lining for the dogs who are wasting away in puppy mills and shelters. Perhaps this economic downturn might be a dog’s chance to get out alive.

The dog trade is showing signs of weakness. Successful business is all about supply and demand and right now the demand side is shrinking as buyers of puppy mill dogs snap their wallets shut. But the reasons aren’t just the economy – it’s a combination of decreased spending, public awareness of inhumane breeding practices, legislation that limits and criminalizes dog factory cruelty and effective campaigns led by animal rights activists.

This spring, a group of Los Angeles activists celebrated yet another victory. After five weeks of protests, the owner of Elaine’s Pet Depot signed an agreement to hand over all of her puppy mill dogs to Good Dog Animal Rescue for adoption. The agreement with the lynchpin store of a national chain of pet stores included a statement that reflected the store’s commitment to working with rescue organizations. The store agreed to hold adoptions and end its sale of puppy mill dogs. Reliable sources from within the franchise claimed that the entire Pet Depot chain was considering conversion to a humane business model within a few months. If the large chain stops buying from brokers and mass volume breeders, the strategy to cripple the puppy mill industry by hitting them where it hurts, in the wallet, is working.

The “go humane or go out of business” campaign has been able to gain momentum by combining its ability to exploit the current economic downtown and its skilled use of visual evidence from undercover investigations. The stores that were protested saw as much as 70 percent of their weekend business deterred by activists brandishing signs depicting graphic photos of dogs suffering in mills. An increasing number of stores in the heart of Los Angeles have been closed down or converted – more than a dozen so far in a little over a year. Learn How You Can Do This, Click Here.

6.Now the Internet is overflowing with puppy mill sales

As the animal protection movement wages its battle against the maltreatment of dogs in puppy mills, it faces a powerful new enemy – the Internet Pet Store. The Internet, as helpful as it has been for rescuing animals with sites like AdoptAPet.com, has become a perfect stealth shield for abusers of animals looking to make a buck. A Google search for information on dog breeds will lead any gullible browser to tens of thousands of online breeders. For the buyer in a hurry, there are Web portals to make shopping easy, like NextDayPets.com, which unite hundreds of dog dealers on one site. With a click, you can pay to have a pup mailed to you in a crate. Though it’s a convenient way to buy a dog, you might be inadvertently contributing to animal abuse.

Deborah Howard, president of the Companion Animal Protection puppy dealers. “One should never, ever buy a dog on the Internet because you’re not seeing the conditions under which the puppy is being raised,” she said. “There are no good ones because reputable reeders don’t sell puppies this way.” “The HSUS receives hundreds of complaints about sick and dying puppies sold over the Internet,” says Kathleen Summers, Deputy Director of the puppy mill campaign of The Humane Society of the United States. “In fact, several of the puppy mills that the HSUS has helped close down recently were Internet sellers, including a mill in Tennessee with almost 700 dogs and a millin West Virginia with almost 900 dogs. Both of these facilities posed online as small family breeders.”

A lot of them arrive sick with Parvo, worms, Giardia, coccidia, kennel cough or pneumonia. It’s even more dangerous than buying in a pet shop because legal recourses are more challenging. You have to file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office in the state of the breeder and if you want to sue the seller, you have to go to small claims court in their state, not yours. These Internet sellers know this.

Many of the sites linked to substandard breeding operations will say anything to deceive buyers into believing the business is ethical or humane. They often describe themselves as “Christian” and “familyrun.” A common lie is that their dogs are “raised in the home.”

Last month the Humane Society Legislative Fund had a contest. They wanted people to submit ideas for new legislation that involves animals. They had more than 3,500 entries. The winner was Cheryl Woodcock. Her idea was for people to get a tax credit for spaying and neutering their animals. She felt this would encourage owners to do their part to help with the overpopulation of animals. The HSLF is working with members of Congress to introduce a new federal bill to promote the spaying and neutering of pets. If you would like to help here is the link.

What is the impact of spaying or neutering your animal?

Spay/neuter is the only permanent, 100-percent effective method of birth control for dogs and cats.

Overpopulation is everywhere

There are so many homeless animals all across the country. In the U.S. there are an estimated 6-8 million homeless animals entering animal shelters every year. About half of these animals are adopted but the rest have to be euthanized. These are healthy, sweet pets and would have made great companions but there were no homes.

These are not the offspring of homeless “street” animals—these are the puppies and kittens of cherished family pets and even purebreds.

Your own pet could be a shelter animal

Many people believe that their pet’s puppies or kittens would never become homeless shelter animals. But the reality is that every time the dog finds his way under the fence to visit the neighbor’s female dog, or the indoor/outdoor cat comes back home pregnant again, the result is a litter of dogs or cats. Even if they are placed into homes, it is still possible for them to end up in shelters once they become “hard to handle,” or for them to reproduce further and for the next generation of puppies or kittens to wind up homeless.

Not just for dogs and cats

When being conscientious about the pet overpopulation, don’t forget to spay or neuter your rabbit. Rabbits reproduce faster than dogs or cats and often end up in shelters where they must be euthanized. Spaying or neutering rabbits can reduce hormone-driven behavior such as lunging, mounting, spraying and boxing. Spaying females can prevent ovarian, mammary and uterine cancers, which can be prevalent in mature females.

Millions of pet deaths each year are a needless tragedy. By spaying and neutering your pet, you can be an important part of the solution.